Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Movie Info

Don’t worry about cloaking yourself Mr. Predator…we can’t see you in the dark anyway

A space ship has crashed in the woods outside of Gunnison, Colorado, and something has survived.  An alien-predator hybrid and a host of alien eggs has been released into the town and they are growing and quickly spreading.  A predator hunter has been dispatched to Earth to stop spread but discovers there is more to the infestation than it has ever encountered.  The hybrid alien-predator has all of the best traits of both species and is out to kill…and the people of Gunnison are caught in the middle.

Directed by the Brothers Strause, Alien vs. Predator:  Requiem is a horror sci-fi action movie.  Following Alien vs. Predator from 2004, the film also goes by the titles AvP: Requiem and Alien vs. Predator 2 among others.  The film was released to negative reviews but a strong box office return.  The film received Razzie nomination for Worst Prequel or Sequel and Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie.

Alien vs. Predator was a big disappointment.  I had anticipated Alien vs. Predator would be a disappointment in that there was so much build up for the monster-mash, and it never could live up to the hype.  With Alien vs. Predator:  Requiem, I went in thinking “how bad could it be”.  Like Alien vs. Predator, it wasn’t good…but it also seemed to make all new mistakes that the first film didn’t make.

Hey lady…ready to suck face?

The story is barely a story.  The first film was rather contained and straight forward.  This film has a bunch of branching stories.  It isn’t really about the alien-predator hybrid because there are all sorts of “regular” aliens running around.  You have the government cover-up conspiracy, and you of course have a bunch of human drama surrounding the Howard brothers and the O’Brien family.  There seems to be too much going on in a film which should primarily be about aliens battling a predator.

As with the previous film, the movie largely is constructed around the humans.  Unfortunately for this, the humans aren’t that interesting.  Steven Pasquale is the “good convict” and his brother played by Johnny Lewis is the guy with the bad reputation because of his family…of course both are really nice, misunderstood guys.  Reiko Aylesworth isn’t bad as returning soldier Kelly O’Brien, but she seems shoehorned into the group in addition to John Ortiz as the sheriff.  It feels like the movie doesn’t have a focus character in an attempt to make the viewer question who will live…but it takes away interest in the characters.

You complete me

The film is way too dark.  It switched from a PG-13 movie to an R-Rated movie (which was good), but you couldn’t see what was happening most of the time.  It feels like a real B-Movie with a budget.  The aliens and predator like always were cool, but at this point in the franchises, they need more than that to sell the picture.

Alien vs. Predator:  Requiem was an opportunity to improve on the quasi-mess that was Alien vs. Predator.  Instead, Alien vs. Predator:  Requiem is less fun, less directed, and harder to see what is occurring.  The Alien vs. Predator line appears to have died with this film despite being financially successful.  The predators returned in Predators in 2010 and the Alien saga continued with the prequel film Prometheus in 2012…and the AvP storyline appears to have been written out of existence (for now).

Related Links:

Aliens vs. Predator (2004)

Prometheus (2012)

Alien:  Covenant (2017)

Alien (1979)

Aliens (1986)

Alien3 (1992)

Alien:  Resurrection (1997)

Predator (1987)

Predator 2 (1990)

The Predator (2018)